The present invention relates to all terrain vehicles.
The use of all terrain vehicles has become increasingly popular over the past number of years both as a recreational vehicle and for the more practical purpose of providing access to otherwise inaccessible locations. To date, most of the popular all terrain vehicles use conventional technologies in that they resemble known motor vehicles. The all terrain vehicles may come in either a three wheel or four wheel design.and they are driven by conventional fossil fuel engines. The all terrain vehicles are designed to travel over land and at the same time, they can also handle certain snow conditions.
However, when the snow is relatively deep, and particularly when it is a soft snow, the conventional all terrain vehicle is unable to function. Under such conditions, snowmobiles have been used. However, even snowmobiles can have problems with certain types of snow conditions as increasingly they are designed to function as a means of transport on packed trails and are not suitable for off trail use.
Generally, neither of the above vehicles are suitable for use on water although there have been proposals for amphibious types of vehicles which represent different combinations of ground and snow vehicles. Generally, the amphibious type vehicles have been equipped with a screw propeller for propelling the vehicle through water. There have been many proposals in the art for amphibious vehicles and thus, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,534,701 and 3,474,751, both to Hebert, show amphibious snow vehicles. A further example of such a type of vehicle is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,521,595 while U.S. Pat. No. 3,450,089 shows a boat which may also be used on land.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an all terrain vehicle which is suitable for use on both land and snow.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an amphibious vehicle which may be used on snow, land and water.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a novel all terrain vehicle which provides superior handling characteristics when used to travel over snow.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a recreational vehicle which comprises a body portion, a pair of spaced apart front wheels, an endless track located rearwardly of said spaced apart front wheels, drive means operative to drive the endless track, and steering means connected to the pair of spaced apart front wheels for steering the same.
In general terms, the recreational vehicle of the present invention can have several different configurations. In one configuration, the recreational vehicle can be adapted for use on either land or snow, while in another configuration, it can also function as an amphibious vehicle.
In the configuration wherein the recreational vehicle is amphibious, the body portion will have an external configuration of a boat hull. As will be appreciated, boat hulls can have very many different shapes and accordingly, the body of the amphibious vehicle could be suitably configured by one knowledgeable in the art to provide floatation in the water.
For travel on both land and snow, the recreational vehicle is equipped with a pair of front wheels and an endless track drive located rearwardly of the front wheels. The front wheels are steerable and in this respect, any conventional steering linkage may be employed. Preferably, the steering is by means of handle bars similar to those used in snowmobiles although it would be within the scope of the invention to use any other conventional type of steering such as steering wheels commonly used in all terrain vehicles.
The front wheels are used in both the mode for traveling on land and for traveling on snow. Preferably, the tires are oversize similar to those used on many conventional all terrain vehicles to provide some floatation when traveling on snow.
The endless track drive may be of the type commonly used on snowmobiles. Many such arrangements are known to those skilled in the art and need not be discussed herein.
The endless belt itself may be designed to have either a larger or smaller cleat having a downwardly extending lag. In the instance wherein the vehicle is used amphibiously, the downwardly extending lag provides the propulsion.
The vehicle may be powered by any conventional source of power with a preferred drive means comprising a fossil fuel engine similar used in present day all terrain vehicles and snowmobiles.
As aforementioned, the drive means is coupled to drive the endless track while in one particular embodiment, there also may be an arrangement to drive the front wheels.
In a preferred embodiment, the endless track is entrained about floatable wheels which serve to provide floatation.